Reunited with Gailey, Mills thriving under Dallas system

Published: Friday, October 16, 1998

IRVING (AP) - The greatest day of Ernie Mills' career turned into the worst.

Playing in the January 1996 Super Bowl with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Mills was the game's leading receiver and was doing a good job returning kickoffs - until the fourth quarter, when he tore a ligament in his left knee.

Mills spent the next two years trying to regain his pre-injury form but couldn't, neither in Pittsburgh nor Carolina. This year, playing in Dallas, he's finally done it.

Through six games, Mills is second on the Cowboys behind Michael Irvin with 17 catches for 329 yards, and he's tied with former college teammate Emmitt Smith for the team lead in touchdowns with four.

Mills put an exclamation point on his comeback last Sunday by burning his former Panthers teammates for five catches, a career-high 110 yards and an amazing, backwards-leaning touchdown catch in Dallas' 27-20 victory.

"Things are going pretty good," the humble, soft-spoken Mills said Thursday. "Overall, I'm pretty pleased but there are some things I'm still trying to improve on."

Mills could make his first start of the year Sunday against Chicago as Billy Davis, his tag team partner as the Cowboys' No. 2 receiver, has a sprained left foot.

Davis has been upgraded to questionable from doubtful, but said Thursday he considered himself probable. He ran for the first time this week and said if the next three days go as well as the last three he'd expect to play and possibly start - even though Mills has seen all the action in practice.

"If coach (Chan) Gailey feels like the person whose been in there all week should be in there, then I can't do that," Davis said.

Mills had a breakout year in 1995 when he caught 39 passes for 679 yards and eight touchdowns. Then the blowout in the Super Bowl set him back to square one.

He caught just seven passes for 92 yards for Pittsburgh in '96, then signed with Carolina as a free agent last season. He went into the year as a starter, but was deactivated by the seventh game and finished the season with just 11 catches for 127 yards.

After Mills was cut in the offseason, he was offered a chance to save his career by Gailey, who had worked with Mills from 1994-96 with the Steelers.

Mills, who turns 30 in two weeks, showed he could still play by catching four passes for 78 yards, including a 30-yard touchdown, in the opener against Arizona. He led the team with 72 yards receiving two games ago, then had the big game against Carolina.

The best moment came in the second quarter with the Panthers up 14-3. Mills ran a fade route to the left corner of the end zone but the ball was coming down behind him so he slowed his pace and arched his back to make the grab that began Dallas' comeback.

"It looks tough, but at the time I wasn't thinking about it being tough," said Mills, adding that he was concentrating extra hard because he had dropped a ball on the previous play. "When you see the ball in the air, you just react."

Davis said Mills made a wonderful adjustment and a tremendous catch.

"The ball is hard to see in Texas Stadium, especially when you're going from shade-to-light like he had to do," Davis said. "I honestly don't think he saw the ball until it was almost behind him."

Gailey said he's glad his gamble on Mills is paying off.

"I hoped he'd be the same guy we had at Pittsburgh and he's been at least that, if not more," Gailey said. "He's the kind of guy you like to see have success because he's such a class guy, a hard worker and a team player."